airtime

SF and SFA has done a really nice job with Apocalypse. However, I think it's also important to note the park has done some other things to the Skull Island area: - Refurbished the bathrooms - Painted the "Roar" sign in front of Roar - Replaced Johnny Rockets with Aviator Grill, painted that part of the food court and introduced new menu items like a Veggie Burger and Turkey Burger - Painted Pirates Flight and added a nice sized monument sign. Pirates Flight is one of the oldest flat rides in the park. - Painted High Seas - Painted the train station - Worked on a 3 tier landscaping in a few areas but notable around Panda Express and High Seas - Expanded the midway and moved the Top Glow water gun game from Coyote Creek to Skull Island Hopefully, if Apocalypse is a big success, we will see refurbishment and new rides in other areas.

First, if you would use some common sense you would understand why they took the ride out. It had problems that just didn't make it worth the investment anymore. Second, quit acting like your ever going back to the park. You know they are never going to remove Flash Pass. The park has drink stands where you can put your drink cups on each riding platform and the only rides with l*o*c*k*e*r*s are Batwing, Superman, Joker's Jinx and Wild One. For a $1.00 you get two hours piece of mind insurance that your stuff isn't going to walk off. It was also until the staff as improved. That issue has been addressed. New management has been brought in, the park looks better than ever and runs the best it has ran in the nearly 10 years I have been going to it. Not to mention a 97% guest satisfaction rating. As for the rides, you keep changing your story. First it was until they add a new coaster, well guess what it appears their building that B&M that you have wanted for so many years. Now it's rides and coasters on a consistent basis. You know what, I'm convinced you wouldn't return if they built a clone of El Toro. You live within a hour drive of the park and refuse to give the park a day visit on a yearly basis.

Here is the report you are referring. Let's remember, SFA has a 97% guest satisfaction rating and has kept that rating the past couple of seasons. John Winkler and his management team has done an amazing job with this park the past couple of years and I think if you haven't visited this park since the new management team has been put in place then you haven't given them a chance.

Not only will he not go back until a new addition to the park is made, he refuses to go at all just to see how the new management team has improved the park. IMHO, Six Flags America is worth visiting at least once a year if you can get a $20 deal to get into the park.

It all depends on when you go. I can't speak much about weekdays since I work but I can tell you overall the park is pretty busy on weekends with Thomas Town being one of the busier areas of the park. Lines out of the queue for Thomas, Harold, Cranky (Cranky gives a pretty decent ride even for adults) and Sodor's Carnival on weekends. Thomas Town was designed so that kids and adults can ride together. Which is something the park sorely needed. With the hot summer Washington/Baltimore had, the waterpark was a big hit. Overall, I think the park had a great summer.

First... I'm the one that created that thread on sfafans.com. Second, let's correct something... Every ride in Thomas Town is new with exception of two, Sodor's Carnival use to be Around The World in 80 Days and Bertie the Bus is partially new. Bertie has new bus shell on it but the rest of the ride is the old Daffy's Movie Town Tour Third... To be completely fair I created a second article on sfafans.com that describes how far the park has come in the past five years. Read that article here: http://www.sfafans.com/showthread.php?t=5729 Fourth.... From what I've been hearing Thomas Town has been a success for the park. KDCOASTERFAN How do you know how busy the park is? When is the last time you stepped foot in it?

Someone was looking for pictures of the renovations made to Hurricane Harbor. You can see some pictures here. For pictures of work being done on Thomas Town, you can see those here.

Don't get me wrong, but until the beginning of October, the red train was running pretty much all summer long. Just because the train is sitting on the transfer track doesn't mean there is anything wrong with it, it could mean that with the crowd they are expecting they don't feel they may feel they don't need it. In all of my discussions with John Winkler, I have found the guy to be honest. He will look you in the eye and tell you if they were having problems. I really do think the park has came along with this season in terms of operations of the park. I even heard they had a 10% drop in down time this season. Hopefully that will continue to drop lower, but from what I understand it is in the range of an industry standard.

What is wrong with the red train? It was running last night.

This one is my favorite. http://twitpic.com/n0srx/full

I agree with "the crowd". If you look at BGT, they are not exactly in the best part of Tampa, yet they are considered a destination park. I think it's how you manage "the crowd. If you establish a no tolerance policing and security in the park has the backing of management and local police then your going to have a crowd of people that obey the rules and everyone has a good time. SFA has come along way with "the crowd" at the park. Look around the country these days, even in the safest of communities violence is a problem. Including some amusement parks you would never think about it being problem.

Where did you get that from? So they approve Two Face instead? A ride that has absolutely no evacuation system on the lift at all?

I guess that is where the difference is, I can spend eight hours at the park easily. Between spending time with my family in the children's areas, watching shows, visiting the water park and riding coasters. I can easily make SFA a day trip.

I don't know about that... A year or two years ago I might have agreed but it seems the park has been given a news lease on life with a new management team. Each one of them have been very approachable, service oriented and willing to discuss many aspects of the park. Looking around the park, only a few managers remains that were at the park a year ago. Lots of new management from parks like SFNE, SFGAdv, SFDK and SFMM have been brought into the park. Is the park perfect, no, but it is has come along way this season. At a recent ACE event there was a call for the park to keep the current Superman team together. A call that a year ago would have never been made. Look around, how many of those rides are actually left in parks. Six Flags, I believe, completely pulled out the Chaos, as did Hershey and they all did it in one year. Two Face, probably better they got rid of it before someone was more seriously hurt, besides, it was getting way to much negative national attention. Isn't it ironic, California's Great America had nearly the same problem SFA's did a couple of years ago? The people that complain about the noise have been there since the '60's and 70's before a ride was ever installed at SFA. IMHO, given the internets ability to quickly mobilize people for a mass movement these days, SFA would not be standing in that spot today. I think they need Thomas Town, Thomas Town will be a big draw for the park. Kids these days know about Thomas, they don't know about the Looney Tunes. I can't wait for my 2 year old son to see it. It's debatable if they need a new coaster, IMHO, I would rather see a flat ride package come before a new coaster. SFI, needs to give SFA the marketing budget to compete with three top 25 parks. With the exception of SFMM, I can't think of another market that SF has to compete with that many parks. Hershey, Kings Dominion and Busch Gardens absolutely kicked Six Flags America's but in terms of on-air marketing this season. This is really like David vs. three Goliaths. When you have 7 million people in a 50 mile radius of the park and they are driving two hours to visit another park, something is wrong.

The tunnel on Roar is still very smooth, one of my favorite parts of the ride. Roar has it's good days and bad days. I'm forming a hypothesis that on cool/moist/rainy days Roar can give some great rides. On hot/dry days, the rides will tear you apart.